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University Daily Kansan Friday, Sept. 29, 1962
Action Changes
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS by Dick Bibler
What must be the most interesting political metamorphosis in campus history is apparently in the process of beginning. This change of position, of possibly very great scope, involves the newest political group on campus, that controversial body so aptly named Action.
Action burst onto the surface last March with sweeping statements against the All Student Council's Human Rights Committee and with the purpose of "promoting an active interest in student government through a liberal viewpoint on both a campus and national basis."
IT WAS ACTION'S idea to push for reaffiliation with the National Student Association, back the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, investigate the Kansas Union, and deal with the situation concerning discriminatory clauses in the local and national constitutions of the fraternities and sororites.
The plank in the Action platform in last spring's election on discrimination called for withdrawal of University recognition to any living group which had not removed existing clauses by September 1, 1965.
Action, upon its conception, was announced to be aspiring the status of an official political party. Memberships were sold and the internal structure was conceived. Formal status was to be determined by the circulating of a petition which had to be signed by 1,000 students. Although Action would have been eligible for party status, the ASC ruled its petition invalid and Action was officially termed a pressure group.
THE INFLUENCE WHICH Action had in last spring's election was noticeable and although none of the candidates which it supported were elected, they certainly were in evidence.
Action was considered by several campus leaders to be little more than a radical group which was attempting to grasp the student's fancy with sweeping claims and probes of new ideas. This feeling reached its zenith with a condemning internal upheaval in which several leaders were criticized for their policies and their methods of dealing with the members.
At the time of this split in its organization, Action was tabbed as being anti-Greek. This was one of the contentions which led the two dissenters to break the shackles of the group.
But that was all last spring. What is Action
now? What is it to represent and how effective will it be?
AT PRESENT ACTION can be considered nothing more than the pressure group its leaders choose to be. There has been an almost total turnover in the leadership of Action and this is the principal reason why there can be foreseen a rather interesting alteration of the ideals of Action.
The vice president in this year's chain of command has declared that the group may assume a more conservative attitude. Many of the persons involved in the birth of Action either have left campus or are no longer active in campus politics and therefore the organization of the group remains in the hands of, for the most part, new people.
Action's vice president said Wednesday that Action will push this year for (1) individual membership in campus political parties, (2) restoration of membership in NSA, and (3) student participation in national or international affairs.
Thus it appears two of the most untenable positions of Action of last spring, its liberal and anti-Greek feeling and its concern with the discriminatory clause issue, have moved more than slightly to the political right, and represent what might be called a severe change from the headline stealing platform of last spring.
HE SAID HE FEELS the discrimination issue was "carried too far" last spring, and that he does not feel "the University should have the right to order these fraternities to remove their clauses by a certain date."
Many of the ideas for which Action will strive this year are parallel or even identical to those of last year. But there is obviously enough of a change evidenced in the preliminary comments of its vice president that Action has come around to the attitudes held by a large segment of the student body.
This move may be a better position. The presence of a radical body functioning as a check for more conservative groups can frequently be a strengthening factor in any government. The trends present in the group now should lead to greater effectiveness for Action, whether it remains a pressure group or becomes a party.
—Bill Sheldon
Equal Parking Rights Needed
Students at KU live in three types of housing. One-third live in Greek houses, one-third live in dormitories, and one-third live in private rooms and apartments.
At times, it appears that the All Student Council thinks only of the first two groups.
FOR EXAMPLE, TAKE the parking bill passed at Tuesday's ASC meeting. This bill provided for the assignment of five Zone O parking permits to each Greek house, to be divided as each individual house sees fit. The bill will primarily benefit students who have classes in Summerfield, Murphy, or Malott Hall.
Also discussed was the possibility of including the large dormitories in this bill, but this was deemed impossible. Dormitory residents already hold parking permits for their dormitory parking lot, and no student is allowed to have more than one University permit.
During the discussion at the ASC meeting
nothing was said regarding students living in private rooms and apartments who could benefit from a Zone O parking place. Students living in private homes on Tennessee Street or in West Hills are in the same position as residents of Greek houses in those areas, because both areas are too near campus to qualify for a permit under ordinary circumstances.
EXACTLY WHAT METHOD should be used in assigning permits to students living in private homes is something which would have to be worked out. It is easier for several Greeks to use one car and thus use less parking space than would be required for students in private homes, each of whom probably would drive his own car.
As long as the ASC is trying to get parking permits for residents of organized houses which have no University parking privileges, it might be wise to consider a similar privilege for students in private homes. —Clayton Keller
By Calder M. Pickett
THE TURN OF THE SCREW, AND OTHER SHORT NOVELS, by Henry James (Signet Classics, 75 cents)—an exceptional volume that contains the celebrated title novel, perhaps the best known of all ghost stories, and also the story of a love affair in the long dead past, "The Aspern Papers": the story of an American girl in Europe, "Daisy Miller," and the long short stories, "The Altar of the Dead." "An International Episode" and "The Beast in the Jungle." It has a foreword by Willard Thorp of Princeton.
Daily Hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904, triviewly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
Telephone VIKing 3-2700 Extension 711, news room Extension 376, business office
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"—YOU HAVE USED TH' FIRST 10 MINUTES - 40 TO GO!"
COMMENT
Keep 'Em Laughing
The United States is following a traditional system of ideals that is the laughing stock of the Communist world. It forms the butt of more jokes in the Kremlin than Khrushchev's farm bulls.
There are several brilliant illustrations of this attitude. The most famous, of course, is Pearl Harbor. Before that, there was the Lusitania.
It is a system that says we shall not fight until hit over the head.
THE COMMUNISTS love it. They know that they can push us to "the brink of war" and like 12th century knights, we accept the iron glove smilingly.
S
Supposing, however, we take the realistic view offered by some of our more conservative Americans like Senators Thurmond, Byrd and Goldwater. We should strike first to make the world safe for democracy, these Senators say.
SO NOW WE ARE in the mid 1960s in a world packed with more danger per square foot than a Bedouin tent. And we still pursue our traditional ideals—like "Truth, Honor, and the American Way," as Superman fans will recall.
Politicians are wont to make speeches on the Fourth of July and say with quivering ethnocentric lip, "This country has never started a war or struck the first blow."
For example, the United States Congress has just passed a bill stating that we shall not attack Cuba, only contain it; that if war breaks out over Cuba, it will be Cuba or the Russians who start it.
I REMEMBER A STORY by Stephen Vincent Benet entitled "The Devil and Daniel Webster." In the story, old Daniel was defending Jabez Stone against the devil. The New Hampshire politician rose, faced a jury from Hades, and began his defense.
He started to fight them on their own terms. Then he saw that they wanted him to do just that—because that way they could win.
It is the same with us today. Can we afford to fight the Communists using their own methods?
ANY VICTORY WE WIN by overt attack is a victory not worth winning. All we would do is slide into the muck that is so outstandingly Russian Communist.
As long as they have American honor to laugh at, we are winning. My suggestion is to keep 'em laughing.
-Zeke Wigglesworth
Worth Repeating
To the vast majority of mankind nothing is more agreeable than to escape the need for mental exertion. . . To most people nothing is more troublesome than the effort of thinking—James Bryce.
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Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.-H. G. Wells